Italy’s biggest oil company issued 1 billion euros ($1.4
billion) of 15-year notes to yield 120 basis points more than
the mid-swap rate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The
average yield on investment-grade corporate debt from countries
including Spain, Italy and Portugal dropped 21 basis points this
month to 2.15 percent, one basis point from a record reached May
2013, Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data show.

“There’s been a very strong take-up on Italian deals
recently,” said Norval Loftus, chief investment officer at
Allegra Investment Management (U.K.) Ltd. in London.
“Confidence is returning to the periphery and any surprises are
likely to be positive rather than to the downside.”

A poll of Bloomberg subscribers conducted last week showed
57 percent of investors, analysts and traders worldwide believe
the worst of Europe’s debt crisis is over. The International
Monetary Fund also raised yesterday its forecast for growth in
the region to 1 percent this year from 0.9 percent it expected
in October.

Filippo Cotalini, a Milan-based spokesman for Eni, referred
to a company statement on the bond sale and declined to comment
further.

Elsewhere in credit markets, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. sold
750 million pounds ($1.2 billion) of 12-year bonds to yield 135
basis points more than U.K. government debt. It’s the New York-based bank’s first debt sale in the currency since July 2008,
according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Orange Hybrid

The average extra yield investors demand to hold sterling-denominated corporate bonds instead of government debt fell to
132 basis points, the narrowest spread since October 2007,
according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch index data.

Orange SA, the biggest French phone company, hired banks to
set up and arrange a potential sale of hybrid bonds in euros and
pounds, another person said. It would be the Paris-based
company’s first sale of the securities combining elements of
debt and equity, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Orange would be the third non-financial borrower to issue
hybrid notes in Europe this year, after Enel SpA and Electricite
de France SA raised a total 4.5 million euros, Bloomberg data
show. Non-financial companies sold a record 30 billion euros of
the bonds in 2013.

OAO Russian Railways, Russia’s state-owned rail network,
has hired banks to arrange investor meetings in Europe starting
Jan. 27, according to a person familiar with the matter. The
Moscow-based company issued its first euro-denominated bond in
April 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Eesti Energia AS, an Estonian utility based in Tallin, is
planning to add more debt to its 300 million euros of 4.25
percent notes due October 2018, another person said. The yield
on the securities issued March 2012 has since fallen by more
than 200 basis points to 2.17 percent, Bloomberg bond prices
show.